Page 97 of Fierce-Michael

He easily picked his son up and brought him upstairs while she grabbed the bag of chips, pretzels and empty juice boxes and brought it all into the kitchen.

Ten minutes later, Michael came back downstairs and she’d been just scrolling through her phone for things on social media. She was on it all the time for work, but her personal account she rarely posted anything and just read what her friends did.

Most were in relationships and tagging each other or posting pictures with their kids.

She had to admit that she felt as if she was at least getting close to having a really solid relationship with a clear future.

Then she had to remind herself it’d only been a few months. There was no such thing as a clear future.

“Sorry about that,” he said and sat next to her on the couch. “He did wake up and went to the bathroom. I had to steady him as he was going to fall back to sleep. He didn’t even ask about you and I bet he forgot you were here.”

“I won’t take offense to that,” she said, smiling.

“You shouldn’t. I appreciate the fact you tired him out for me.”

“It’s a lot of work, isn’t it?” She supposed she didn’t have a good understanding or appreciation of how Michael balanced it all.

But watching his interactions with Ty only made her love for him grow even more.

“It is,” he said. “Nothing about parenthood is easy. I didn’t expect it to be. Some people make it seem that way.”

“You almost do,” she said.

“Thanks for that. Then no one knows I’m like a duck in a pond.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, frowning.

“Looking calm while my feet paddle like hell under the water.”

“Boy, I know what that is like enough in my life too,” she said.

She hadn’t thought of it in years. Maybe looking on social media right now and seeing high school friends and their lives brought it all back.

Memories of Brian. What she’d loved and lost. How she had to keep it all together for him but internally wanted to break down.

His parents were doing the same thing and maybe she didn’t cut them enough slack either.

The whole thing was a horrible situation that she wouldn’t wish on anyone.

“But not now, right?” he asked.

“No,” she said. “I’d say I’m at a point in my life where I’m balancing it pretty well. You get what you see.”

“The same,” he said. “I’m tired of hiding it. I feel I can be who I want with you.”

She moved over and let him sit on the couch next to her, got under his arm and snuggled. “I want you to always feel that way with me.”

“I want you to feel it too,” he said.

“I meant what I said to Ty. I don’t want you to feel as if you have to do this every weekend.”

“I know,” he said. “I’ll talk to him about it tomorrow. It’s not attainable. There is just too much in life to do. But I do want to be able to have days like this. Or evenings. Maybe you come to dinner and he goes to bed after a movie and we get a couple of hours to just sit here and be. How does that sound?”

“That sounds just about perfect.”

And like the family she always wanted and couldn’t wait to have.

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